Pages

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

The Heavenly Bites Novella Collection by Christine S. Feldman is now available at a reduced price, but only for a few days.Download it
on your Amazon Kindle
for just .99 cents (offer ends June 2)!

Blurb

At the Heavenly Bites Bakery, three very
different women bake up delectable treats and find romance with some unexpected
but equally delectable men.Find out how
in these three short and sweet novellas, finally available as a collection and
in paperback form…

Pastels
and Jingle Bells:When Trish Ackerly crosses paths with Ian
Rafferty, the former bully of her childhood years, her plans for a comeuppance
fall by the wayside as she comes to realize that the man he is now is very
different from the boy he used to be—and that a Christmas romance might just be
in her future.

Love
Lessons:When bakery customer Mrs. Beasley guilts
Nadia Normandy into mentoring unsuspecting accountant Benji Garner in the world
of dating, Nadia soon discovers that this particular accountant has a charm all
his own.And with New Year’s Eve just
around the corner, it may be time for Nadia to make a resolution to sweep her
protégé off his feet before someone else beats her to it.

Playing
Cupid:Free-spirited Aimee Beasley’s plans to match
her widowed grandmother up with a distinguished elderly gentleman hit a snag
when she learns he’s the uncle of their downstairs neighbor, grim Doyle
Berkely, a man with whom Aimee butts heads on a regular basis.But in the process of nudging her
grandmother’s romance along, Aimee uncovers a softer side to Doyle that may
lead to a little romance of her own…

Excerpt

Pastels and
Jingle Bells:Heavenly Bites Novella #1

It was probably
inviting the worst kind of karma to be contemplating murder during the holiday
season of all times, but that didn’t phase Trish Ackerly in the slightest as
she stared through her bakery’s storefront window in shock.

It was him.
Ian Rafferty, bane of her junior high school existence. She’d know that
face anywhere, despite the changes in it. Sure, he was a couple of feet
taller now and certainly broader shouldered, but as he glanced away from the
winter scene she had painted on the window only yesterday and at a passing car
that whizzed by much too fast on the busy city street, the profile he
presented to her confirmed it. Yes, it was him. That same
nose, the odd little scar above his eye, the familiar way he quirked his lips…

Then he turned his
face back to the window, and Trish gasped and dropped to the floor before he
could spot her staring at him.

“What on earth are
you doing?” came Nadia’s voice from behind the counter.

Trish huddled behind
a tall metal trash can and glanced up through her dark bangs at her startled
friend and business partner only to remember belatedly that they had company in
the shop, namely wizened little Mrs. Beasley, whose startled eyes blinked at
her from behind enormous tortoise-shell spectacles.

Well, there was
little help for it now. “That guy,” Trish hissed, jerking one thumb in
the direction of the window. “I know him!”

Both Nadia and Mrs.
Beasley peered intently through the glass. “Mmm,” said Nadia
appreciatively a moment later. “Lucky you, girlfriend.”

“No, not lucky
me! That guy made my life a living hell in junior high. He’s a
jerk, he’s a bully—“

With a squeak of
alarm, Trish shuffled hastily behind the counter on her hands and knees and
hunched into as small and inconspicuous a ball as she could.

Nadia blinked.
“Trish, are you out of your—“

“Sh!”

“Oh, you did not
just shush me—“

“SHH!” Trish
insisted again, knowing full well that she’d pay for it later, and then she
pulled her head down into her shoulders as much as her anatomy would allow.

The bell on the door
jangled cheerfully then, and a gust of cold air heralded Ian Rafferty’s
arrival.

“Hi, there,” Nadia
greeted him brightly, surreptitiously giving Trish’s foot a little dig with one
of her own. “Welcome to Heavenly Bites. What can I get for you?”

“Cup of coffee would
be great for starters,” came a voice that was deep but soft, and far less
reptilian than Trish expected. She cocked her head slightly to better
catch his words and heard the unmistakable sound of him blowing on his hands
and rubbing them together to warm them. “Cream, no sugar.”

“Sure thing, honey.”

“Your window art,”
his voice continued, and Trish straightened ever so slightly at the mention of
her work. “It’s fantastic. Can I ask who painted it?”

“Absolutely,” Nadia
returned, turning her attention to getting the coffee he requested. “My
business partner, Trish.”

“Is she around, by
any chance?”

Nadia glanced down
at where Trish sat scrunched up and did what Trish thought was a very poor job
of suppressing a smirk. “She’s, um, indisposed at the moment. Why
do you ask?”

“I’ve got a couple
of windows that could use a little holiday cheer. Think she might be
interested in the job?”

Nadia gave Trish
another brief sideways glance.

Trish shook her head
frantically.

“Tell you
what. Leave me your number, and we’ll find out.” Nadia stepped out
of reach before Trish could smack her leg.

“Great,
thanks. Here’s my card.”

“I’ll see that she
gets it, Mr.—“ Nadia glanced at the card. “—Rafferty. Here’s
your coffee, and you, sir, have a very nice day.”

The bell on the door
jingled again, and Trish cautiously poked her head up long enough to verify
that Ian was indeed gone. She then ignored the fascinated look Mrs.
Beasley was giving her and fixed an icy stare on Nadia. “I’m going to
kill you. How could you do that?”

Nadia tossed her
dark braids over her shoulder. “Hmph. Shush me in my own shop…”

“I don’t want to
talk to that guy! I don’t want to have anything to do with him.”

“Of course there’s
no ring! No woman wants to marry the devil!” Trish sank back down
onto the floor and leaned back heavily against the shelves behind her.

“He used to
be the devil,” Nadia corrected her, examining the business card he had handed
to her. “Now he’s ‘Ian Rafferty, Landscape Architect’. And he’s a
paying customer, Trish. Face it, you could use the money.”

“Forget it.
I’m not so hard up that I’d go crawling to Ian Rafferty for a job.” Trish
scowled and folded her arms across her chest. “I have my dignity, you
know.”

“Yeah? Why
don’t you get up off the floor and tell me all about your dignity.”

“Oh, shut up,” Trish muttered, getting to
her feet and snatching the card from Nadia’s hand. Wadding it up, she
tossed it in the direction of the trashcan and stalked into the bakery’s
kitchen.

Christine S. Feldman writes both novels and feature-length screenplays, and she has placed in screenwriting competitions on both coasts. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her ballroom-dancing husband and their beagle. Connect with Christine on Facebook or visit her website.

Media headlines abound these days saying, “Tea
is trendy...” and we believe it until we read the first chapter of Ritual Tea:
How the 9 Secrets of Tea Can Transform Your Life.Entitled, Tea’s Sordid and Holy Exploits,
chapter one is a worldwide, whirlwind tour of tea history that leaves the
reader knowing once and for all that tea has always been trendy for very good
reasons. Next to water, tea is the world’s most popular drink.

Author Mario Zeleny, lifelong tea lover and
personal coach, extracts the magic of tea from its history, uses, and benefits
but also from its power to change the world. He brings the secrets of tea into
modern light, and makes it accessible for contemporary lifestyles.

“We do not have to be a Buddhist monk, or
study The Way of Tea for decades to be your own Tea Master,” says Zeleny, “but
you must understand its secrets to reap tea’s transformative qualities in your
life.”

Ritual Tea boasts over 30 links to free tea
products, ten personal rituals to help with everything from anxiety to sleep,
and 10 charts that make crafting our own ritual a breeze.

Discover the transformative power of tea
hidden in its history, versatility, and essence through simple, timeless and
individualized rituals. To help us on the tea path, the author has made a free
Ritual Tea ecourse available through ArtSpellz.com.

Tea has made a 5000 year trek to inhabit the
world and in its wake it has altered not only individual lives but cultures and
countries.Ritual Tea asks, “Who will we
be in tea’s history?”Will we just make
tea, or will we allow tea make us?

About the author

Mario
Zeleny – Lover of all things tea.Mario
spent 15 years in healthcare and social services in clinical and administrative
roles that offered coaching to employees and volunteers.An artist and entrepreneur from an early age,
Mario now brings his love of writing, art, spirit, coaching and ritual together
online at his creative living site, Sancti Spiritus and also from
his transformational art site, Art Spellz.
Mario looks forward to completing his education with Mentor Coach and St.
Clement Seminary. He currently resides in Sacramento
with his husband of 8 years, their children and their domestic sovereign, a pug
named Brigit.

In The Gifted: How to Live
the Life of Your Dreams author, speaker and licensed psychotherapist Daphne
Michaels celebrates the nine gifts that are our birthright, guiding readers in
how to recognize and use them to transform their lives. In her author's
preface, Michaels reveals how her own journey of life transformation began when
she was young and realized that human existence wore two conflicting faces--one
of love and joy, and one of fear and despair. She decided then to commit her
life to reconciling these two visions because she knew that, irreconcilable
though they seemed, together these two faces held the secret to living a life
of endless possibility and authentic happiness. Her personal journey and formal
education in social science, human services and integral psychology led to the
founding of the Daphne Michaels Institute, which has helped hundreds of men and
women design the lives of their dreams.

In The Gifted Michaels
shows us that the first three “gifts” we must recognize and embrace within us
if we are to re-design our lives are Awareness,Potential and Stillness.
These three allow us to identify and use the remaining six with a life-changing
power: Disharmony, Harmony, Ease, Clarity, Freedom and Engagement.
Each of these six relies on the “essential three” for its own power to change
our lives, and each has its own gifts--its “children.” By approaching the nine
gifts with real-world metaphors, Michaels answers in easily understood ways
what for many readers have been lingering questions about personal
transformation—such as how it works, what kind of commitment it takes, and why,
if we’re committed, real transformation becomes inevitable—and addresses
obstacles that readers may have encountered in the past in trying to reach in
life a happiness every human deserves.

While the human universe’s
face of love is celebrated in The Gifted, so is the face of fear that
haunted a young girl decades ago. As Michaels shows us in her book, even Disharmony—the
“quagmire” of life born of the human ego’s fear, defenses, delusions and
despair—is a gift, too, and one as important as the others if we know how to
see it clearly and use it. Once we understand Disharmony, we are ready to
understand the real purpose of Harmony in our lives. Disharmony does not need
to rule us. It is ours to use as we design the lives of our dreams.

The final gift in The
Gifted, Michaels tells us, is the gift of Engagement.
Engagement—with the universe and with ourselves—allows us to use all of the
other gifts with more power and joy than we ever imagined possible.

That mountaintop decision
never left me. It drove my life’s work and over the years led me to understand
that there are gifts – nine of them, in fact – that we are all born with but
rarely experience in their full glory and potential. These gifts – which
make each and every one of us “The Gifted” of this book’s title – are the keys
to living lives of endless possibilities and, in turn, achieving an
authentic happiness that cannot be lost. They are, in other words, the
keys to achieving the life of our dreams.

-
Daphne Michaels Excerpt:

Life’s greatest mystery is
inside us. It is inside every living thing. Like the deep secrets of the
universe, the mystery inside us will never be fully explained. By exploring it,
however, we can discover gifts available to us that can change our lives
forever.

Life’s great mystery is awareness.
More basic than thoughts and more primal than instincts, awareness does not
require a centralized brain, as scientists have proven through studies with
invertebrates like starfish. While these beautiful creatures have no
centralized brains, they possess awareness. Starfish, like all
invertebrates, use awareness to perceive, eat, grow, reproduce, and survive.

Awareness is so intrinsic to life that
it defines life: living means being aware. From the beginning of life –
before we take an initial breath – humans demonstrate tremendous awareness.
Prenatal psychologists have discovered that we experience, while still in our
mother’s womb, not only light and sound but, even more astonishingly, emotion.
We kick our legs when agitated by loud noises and sway pleasantly to beautiful
classical music. Months before birth we grimace at the taste of sour amniotic
fluid and drink heartily when it is sweet. Awareness grows as we grow.

As we develop as human beings,
our awareness stretches in all directions – from awareness of our five basic
senses to awareness of external events around us, from awareness of our
emotions to awareness of our thoughts, from limited awareness of a topic that
bores us to an expanded awareness of topics we feel passionate about. Of all
the many dimensions of awareness, the highest form is self-awareness.
With self-awareness we begin to appreciate just how far awareness actually
extends. Just as ocean waters are deeper than the surface of the sea, awareness
is deeper than the surface of our physical body or our conscious thoughts. The
infinite depth and breadth of awareness is filled with gifts that are ours
to receive.

About the Author:

Daphne
Michaels is an author, speaker and licensed psychotherapist whose institute has
helped hundreds of women and men transform their lives through the "gifts"
every human being is born with. Daphne began her own journey of transformation
at a young age, pursued it fearlessly, and later studied formally in the fields
of social science, human services and integral psychology. The Gifted: How
to Live the Life of Your Dreams launches both Daphne Michaels Books and The
Gifted series, whose goal it is to share with the widest audience possible
the principles that guide the Daphne Michaels Institute. Daphne's earlier book,
Light of Our Times, featured her conversations with such international figures
in the fields of spirituality and personal development as Ram Dass, Julia
Cameron, Dr. Masaru Emoto, and Thomas Moore.

Monday, May 19, 2014

New York Times bestselling author Susan Mallery invites you back to Fool's Gold, where a newcomer to town might finally meet the man she never knew she needed…

I am super-excited to have Susan on the blog to talk about WHEN WE MET, the latest addition to her popular saga, Fool's Gold. Enjoy the Q&A and don't forget to leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of the book (US residents only). Welcome, Susan!

Q. WHEN WE MET' s hero Angel Whittaker appeared in your 2005 book Living On The Edge. What made you decide to bring him back?

A. I never forgot about Angel, and I always knew I would write a book for him when I found the perfect woman for him. When I started brainstorming this year's Fool's Gold romances, Tatum Crawford came to me. She's a very powerful, confident, self-made woman. She started her PR firm from nothing, and she is the clear leader over her three JFK-star partners. She needed a man who was equally strong, someone who would stand up to her when need be, and someone who would cherish and protect her when she wasn't feeling all that strong. Angel, who'd been hovering in my subconscious for years, stepped forward and claimed her.

The idea was a little disconcerting, to be honest, because Living On The Edge is a romantic suspense, and Fool's Gold is spool not a suspense-y series. Which meant Angel, this very serious, hard-core sniper type was going to have to move to a quirky small town in California. I paired him up with buddies from the military who opened a bodyguard academy in Fool's Gold last year.

Angel grew up in a small town, so in some ways, Fool's Gold felt very familiar to him right away. After a few months of living there, he decides that he wants to give something back, to contribute, because that's what people do in small towns. A decision he lives to regret...the project assigned to him by the all-knowing Mayor Marsha isn't exactly what he has in mind. I think readers are going to really slight when they see what he's gotten himself into. Fortunately, Taryn will help him over the rough spots.

Q. What book would you like to take a weekend vacation inside of?

A. I'd love to spend a weekend on Debbie Macomber' s Blossom Street. I wouldn't even to travel far - I live in Seattle, where that series is set. I'm hopeless at knitting, but since this is fantasy, let's pretend that I'd whip up a gorgeous sweater during my weekend visit.

Q. With the release of WHEN WE MET, as you look back, what was the biggest surprise that occurred while you were writing the story?

A. I was a little surprised by how hot things got between Angel and Taryn. I tend to write sexy, but Angel and Taryn are a little older than my typical hero and heroine - 40 and 34, respectively - and significantly more experienced. They know what they want, and they're not afraid to ask for it. There were times when these two were so in-your-face with their sexy repartee that I was sort of gasping and laughing I wrote.

Q. What's the hardest thing you've had to face or as a writer? How did you overcome it?

A. The hardest part of what I do is making sure each book is better than the one before. In the beginning, when I was still learning, it was pretty easy to improve. But now, after over 100 books, it's challenging. But that's always the goal. That the characters are more real, the dialogue funnier, that the story draws you in even faster. There's not a single day that I sit down to write without thinking about how to do it better than I did yesterday.

Q. You wrote in a recent Facebook post that you started writing a new Fool's Gold book for 2015 and rewrote the beginning a few times because you didn't know the heroine well enough yet. Can you explain this process and how you are able to finally get to "know" the character you're writing?

A. I first start reading about a book somewhere around 18 months to two years before it's released. This is particularly true with a series like Fool's Gold. I need to know what's coming so that I can set up the stories in advance, so the characters feel naturally integrated into the town.

When I'm ready to really get started, I write until the characters click for me, usually about a chapter. I have to know who they are so that I can know how they will react to whatever might happen in the book. Once I know them, I stop writing and through my plot the story. Because of the prep work, once I get to the actual writing of the book, I can write pretty fast. But it's kind of like when you ask an artist how long it took them to create a beautiful painting - a few hours...plus years of practice and study.

Q. You often turn to your fans to help you come up with names for your characters. What makes you decide to do this and how do you pick?

A. Oh, I lovlove asking my friends at www.facebook.com/susanmallery to help me brainstorm, whether it be character names, business names, or even country music song titles for a heroine who will be coming to Fool's Gold next year! Sometimes a character comes to me complete with a name, but mostly, they come with heart and soul, and I have to think of a name. I could easily look at naming websites for ideas, but I think my Facebook friends love being involved, and it's fun for me to see what they come up with. I choose the name that I think best suits the heart and soul of the character in my head. Whenever possible, I give that character the last name of the reader who suggested the first name I selected.

Q. If WHEN WE MET were made into a movie, who would you have play Angel Whittaker and Taryn Crawford?

A. Have you heard of an actor named Sullivan Stapleton? He's British, but with an American accent, he'd be perfect as Angel. Tall and dark, with a dangerous edge. His pale gray eyes are almost hypnotizing, like the covers in Jungle Book. Except, you know, sexy guy, not at all snake.

For Taryn, I'll go with Sandra Bullock. Taryn' s high-powered fashion plate. She likes what she likes, she wants what she wants, and she makes no apologies for it. Everything she has, she has earned. She's not just smart, she's street-smart.

Q. What makes Taryn stand out from the other heroines you've written?

A. Contradiction is what makes any character come alive, and Taryn is full of them. On the surface, she has it all together. She runs a very successful PR firm. She has a wardrobe that culture fashion models would envy. Your first impression of Taryn is that she wants for nothing...but she went through a lot of pain to get where she is today. She's a survivor. She has pulled herself up from very tough circumstances, and to do that, she has had to guard her heart. But there's a softness, a vulnerability inside her that no one but Angel can see. He will treasure her forever.

Q. What's next for the town of Fool's Gold?

A. Up next are BEFORE WE KISS and UNTIL WE TOUCH, featuring two of Taryn's partners at Score PR. In BEFORE WE KISS, Sam Ridge, a former NFL kicker, has to hire Dellina to help him plan a major company bash. He's very reluctant to work with her because a few months ago, they had a little fling that went terribly (and comically) wrong. Dellina's going to make him pay a little bit before she forgives him. So much fun to watch a strong man grovel!

At the start of UNTIL WE TOUCH, former quarterback Jack McGarry is shocked when the mother of his personal assistant and best friend Larissa Owens tells him to fire Larissa because the big-hearted beauty is in love with him. That's new to Jack...and when he tells Larissa what her mom said, it's news to Larissa, too! She's not in love with Jack. Except, just by saying the words, her mom has opened both their eyes, and things between them suddenly get very hot.

Fans of the romance and romantic comedy genre, you're going to love what Susan Mallery has in store for you!

GIVEAWAY (US only)

Susan's publicist is generously offering 1 copy of WHEN WE MET to a lucky follower of this blog (US residents only, please). Follow Mina's Bookshelf, leave a comment in the section below, and include your email address for a chance to win. Good luck!

ABOUT THE BOOK

Angel Whittaker earned his scars the hard way, but the scars that can't be seen are the ones that haunt him the most. Since he moved to Fool's Gold, California, he's cobbled together a life for himself as a bodyguard trainer. If he's not exactly happy, at least his heart is safe.

Working with pro-football superstars taught tough-talking PR woman Taryn Crawford one thing—she can go toe to toe with any man. But then dark, dangerous former Special Ops Angel targets her for seduction…and challenges her to resist his tempting kisses.

Even in four-inch heels, Taryn never backs down. Unless, somehow, Angel can convince her that surrender might feel even better than victory.

About Me

Mother of two amazing kids, Miss A™ entertainment columnist, avid reader bordering book-fetishism. Books are my childhood friends, my stress-relief therapy, my wings to fly to faraway lands and distant times, my source of knowledge and inspiration. I simply adore them and consume them aplenty. My "book love affair" began in my early teens with the Bronte sisters, Dickens, Austen, Poe, Conrad, and James. My taste in reading was shaped by those masters and still today, when I read fiction, I appreciate the dark tones, the Gothic touches, and the psychological insight typical of those classics.